Today
by Sanpizil
Summary: Neuro, Yako, Godai, and the case of the Skater and the Sister, segueing into the case of the Winter Tower. Follows closely on the heels of Quietly and Softly. Finished.
1. Calm

_Please note that, while in some senses this is a stand-alone story, it also features some references to events and people met in a previous story, Quietly and Softly._

_I seem to have let down a few people on the last mystery, and for that I am sorry. It wasn't my intention to have too intricate a plot, since I wanted to try to become as familiar with the characters as I could first. However, Today has a bit more of a complicated weave, one that I hope will satisfy more._

_I still don't own these people, none of them._

* * *

As a child, Yako never really knew what she wanted to be. A cook, perhaps, or maybe an architect like her papa? Maybe a journalist like mama, or a skater.

She didn't ever really suspect that she'd end up as a detective. She'd always been somewhat inclined towards food, and while she nowadays knew that she just didn't have the competitive streak to go into that field, when she was a girl she'd cook up fish for her parents and pretend that she had made them lamb with mint and lime sauce.

They'd play along, of course, and after a while her mother continued the joke.

"Duck a l'Orange," Yako said, placing two cups of instant ramen on the table. Neither Yako nor her mother said anything, but they thought of the room upstairs, painted in blood, and shuddered. A stiff silence fell. Neither of them picked up their chopsticks.

Yako went to bed that night and, even though she hadn't eaten anything, she wasn't hungry.

* * *

A detective now and well past pretending to cook gourmet dishes, Yako surveyed the body in front of her. Neuro was leaning over her shoulder, squinting at the ice.

She knew she probably should have been paying better attention to the tracks, the marks, and the faces of the people that had been first to discover the body, but something was bothering her. She'd only thought about it much later, when they were back from Gigi's estate and she was lying in bed.

Neuro hadn't eaten Madam Ayame's mystery, and Yako didn't know what to think of that. She knew that the woman's hard words had even thrown her for a loop for a bit (what had she been thinking?! she asked herself on the drive home, understanding Miss Ayame's pain a little more). But it seemed absurd for Neuro not to eat a mystery, as unusual and not-mysteryish as it was. Surely he had eaten lesser things.

"Aha," Neuro breathed, standing up. Yako looked over at him questioningly- he had his serious face on. "This mystery tastes odd indeed. I can't tell if I want it or not."

"Eh?! Really? But doesn't this seem like just your sort of thing, Neuro?" Yako gasped, worry seizing her. Maybe Neuro was becoming _anorexic!!_

Neuro made an odd puffing noise. "I don't want to become fat and ungainly."

"N- Neeeurro! NO! I mean, eating is aaaAGGHK!" Being grabbed on the face was new, she reflected sadly. It hurt a lot more than her head, actually, and it was hard to get air. She sincerely hoped that he decided her head was easier to grab. He started to walk towards the benches, dragging Yako along. He was still making that odd puffing noise. Yako decided that he must be laughing at her without wanting anybody to hear- the acoustics in the rink were incredible.

"Oho, Slave Number One, do not think me so pathetic as to fall into such a human trap." Neuro cast her aside with enough force to push her across the ice and into the stands. "But ah, look how eager you are! If only I was as ready as sensei is to solve all these mysteries, perhaps I'd be a detective in my own right." Yako clambered to her feet, looked up to see Sasazuka and Ishigaki walking in.

"Nph, yeah, right..." She groused quietly.

"Sorry, what was that, sensei? She's so shy about sharing her knowledge, gentlemen," Neuro had turned earnest and puppy-eyed again, "that sometimes I barely even hear sensei telling me her thoughts!"

Sasazuka raised an eyebrow deliberately. "Yes, I've noticed that."

There was a sudden tense silence as Neuro and Sasazuka locked eyes. Ishigaki and Yako grimaced at each other in sympathy.

"Uh, Sasazuka, sooo about the victim..."

"... Apparently she was a rising star." Neuro and Sasazuka spared each other one more direct look before Neuro redirected his gaze to the rink and Sasazuka to Yako. "She was found dead this afternoon, and the medical report states that it was from heart failure. The main suspect is her older sister, who had a large, empty bottle of aspirin in her purse." Yako blinked.

"Aspirin? You can die of aspirin poisoning?" Sasazuka looked over to the rink, where a few tiny girls had just gotten onto the ice. Behind them, a tall man with a thick red beard followed.

"She was a figure skater. According to her parents, she'd been using aspirin to dull the pain of a number of injuries she had, so she had quite a bit in her system already." Ishigaki chose that moment to burst in.

"Miss Yumi, champion of last year's Nationals, winner of 'Ten Cutest Girls in Sports' three years in running, had overdosed on it, and she went into pulmonary edema that led to cardiopulmonary arrest!"

Yako stared at him. She could feel Neuro's 'I am going to eat your soul' look boring into her, and she thought she knew why.

"What does that mean?" Honestly, she didn't know either, but Neuro would probably throw her off the subway if she made him ask, and looking it up would take too long for his tastes.

"...I have no idea." Admitted Ishigaki, laughing sheepishly. Sasazuka gave Ishigaki a small frown and nodded to Yako.

"It basically means that her heart gave out on her. Pardon us, but we have to go question some witnesses."

"Mm, we should go do some work as well. Thank you, Sasazuka!" Neuro watched the three girls and their trainer wheeling around on the ice below for a moment before he acknowledged that the detectives were gone.

"Why on earth are all humans so self-destructive?" Turning to look at him, Yako had to admit to herself that it was a bit strange. They'd been free of cases that dealt with sicknesses like this until only recently; before Gigi's case, they hadn't had a single one that had anything to do with any sicknesses but plain old sociopathy. It was strange, Yako mused, and not a good trend.

"We're not all this way, Neuro. Look at Godai and I!" He turned his gaze onto her suspiciously.

"You..." He looked at her for a moment more before grinning widely. "I'll have to be a bit more careful around Sasazuka, won't I?" They began to walk towards the exit.

"Uh, well... I guess so. That was so strange... He's normally not so, you know. Aggressive about it." Neuro quirked a brow and flung opened the door, letting the cold winter breeze sweep over them. Yako eyed the sky for potential snow before shaking her head and racing to catch up to Neuro's larger stride. When she did, he grabbed her head lightheartedly and twisted it around before releasing it.

"Sasazuka is aggressive in his own right."

"Nn," Yako shook her head to ease out the kinks, wondering when it had stopped hurting so much to get her head twisted, "no, there was something strange there. I think he suspects something odd about you, but he never pushes. Today he seemed... on edge, maybe? He didn't stop and chat at all, and he didn't scold Ishigaki at all for going on and on about Yumi's achievements."

They stopped to wait for the cross signal.

"Maybe he got in trouble at work because all his mysteries are being solved," Neuro finally chuckled. Even though she told herself it wasn't funny, that Sasazuka could be at risk of losing his job if that was the case, Yako had to let out a tiny chuckle of her own at the thought of his division at a lack of work to do solely because of _them._

* * *

"Humans hurtling around on a sheet of ice using sharp metal bars? It sounds dangerous." Neuro first commented when they received the request via e-mail. Yako had been trying to explain the concept to him but, she sadly reflected, it seemed like a lost cause already. "Is it a combat sport?"

Godai, in the corner e-mailing Gigi, let out a large sniffle.

"Always up on the latest dying star, eh, Slave Number Two?" Godai's spine stiffened. Neuro, baring his spiky teeth in a blank smile, pressed on. "Aha, perhaps I should find your latest girlfriend and tell her about your obsession with other women."

Yako bit her lip. When she was coming in, she'd seen the contents of Godai's e-mail. She didn't want to say anything to Neuro, but at the same time, his comments were hitting a little too close to home for Godai to be okay with it.

Sitting in the office now, having gotten back from the rink, Yako looked at Godai's couch. The man wasn't on it, of course, but she hoped he was somewhere comfortable: it had started to blizzard just as Neuro and she had arrived at the office. Maybe he was meeting up with his girlfriend. She could probably use the comfort, at the least.

* * *

"Eh, Neuro," she sat down on the couch, watching him watch the snow. "Why didn't you eat Madam Ayame's mystery? Really?" Neuro looked back at Yako.

"...It wasn't much of a mystery. It was more of a riddle." Yako puffed out her cheeks in protest.

"What difference does it make?"

"Oh?" Neuro covered distances very quickly when he wanted to, Yako decided sadly. Standing over her with bared claws and wet, sharp-looking teeth, she certainly could appreciate that. The thing was (and this she would never, never tell Neuro), she'd started to get used to his posturing and threats. It was something like the boys on the playground pulling girls' pigtails, though with a rather more significant level of threat. It was to the point where a simple grin or a sharp finger being held up didn't really instill much fear in her.

But, Neuro was male, and Yako had experienced firsthand that no matter the species, men were men. If he decided that she was no longer frightened of him, he might come up with an even worse method of terrorization. For the sake of her own sanity, Yako acted frightened when in fact she knew he wouldn't harm a hair on her head past a little discomfort. Male pride, when trodden upon, was a terrible thing. She didn't want to get the demon equivalent of mud thrown at her.

"That's funny, I could have sworn that I heard a shrimpy little wood louse questioning my dietary needs!" He was so close to her that she could feel his hot breath on her face. While in any other circumstance and with anybody else that might be considered romantic, here, it was just terrifying. His teeth were looking awfully sharp up close, and his eyes awfully demonic.

He still, Yako mused, was sometimes genuinely terrifying.

"No, I eat mysteries, not idle riddles." Yako swallowed tensely, feeling the sharpness of his claws at her throat. How like Neuro to instill fresh fear in her just as she'd mused on how the old was dead. "A demon's diet is very important. If I eat the wrong thing, I will lose many abilities." Yako blinked. Was he actually volunteering information on himself?

(What was _up_ with everybody today? They were all acting so strange. It just _had_ to be the storm.)

Neuro withdrew and hid his claws away with a slick noise not unlike a knife through meat. Yako shuddered and decided, quite firmly, not to ask.

"I don't really like the way this is shaping up. It seems like the girl probably overdosed herself by accident and her sister was just caught up in it all by mistake." Yako lay down on the couch, trying to calm her still-racing heart.

"But why would it attract you in the first place, then?" Neuro swung around so quickly that she jumped a bit. If she didn't know better, she would have said that Neuro had jumped a little too.

"It didn't attract me, though. You were the one that suggested the case to _me_." He fixed her with that same odd stare he'd taken to using when they were alone and conversing seriously- not glowing but not dim, something studious and unsettling.

"So what are you saying, Neuro?" Sleep was close enough that the words came out in a tired mumble, "that this isn't your kind of food?"

"...No," she heard him saying, "...I'll eat it, but..." She missed the rest of his sentence, even though she was sure what he had said was important. She could always ask Akane later.

* * *


	2. Before

_Hello! I'm sorry this took so long. I felt that this chapter was somewhat delicate, and yesterday I was rather tired, so much so that I fell asleep on top of my Chinese homework. It didn't seem wise to tackle this part in that state, so I gave myself another day. _

_For anybody wondering, the injuries listed for Yurika are actual injuries sustained by elite-level figure skaters, and common ones at that. I've been researching a little for this, and it's scary.  
_

_I still, still don't own anybody._

* * *

The next day, with the earth covered in fresh snow and the sun shining muzzily through a thick cover of clouds, Yako and Neuro set out to meet with the Abe parents.

"Stay here, Slave Number Two," Neuro tossed out casually, eyeing Yako's scarf with what she sincerely hoped wasn't interest- she still remembered her lost takoyaki. "Look into the victim's health history." Godai made an angry shuffling noise. Yako tossed a concerned look to him, but when he saw her, he just shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

"Godai, take... take care of yourself?"

"Pssh, yeah, whatever." Aha, thought Yako, she had pushed too hard. Godai and Neuro were both difficult in their own ways, Neuro prone to lashing out when prodded, Godai to shutting out.

Following Neuro out of their building, Yako couldn't help but wonder why on earth she was involved with people like this.

* * *

The train ride to the parents' restaurant was slow, made slower still by the cold winds that howled over the tracks and worries of falling power lines. As they inched along, Yako's thoughts turned to the parents of the victim and the suspect.

She was surprised that they were still keeping their business opened. In fact, she was curious to see what kind of parents they were, not only for herself but for the suspect, Ami. If Yako could get a handle on who had raised the sisters and how, she felt certain she could know whether or not Ami had actually committed a crime.

* * *

The restaurant was warm and cozy, with a strong feel of family. Pictures of Yurika in various poses, always receiving a gold medal of some sort, dotted the wall. Yako, looking around, couldn't help but notice that there wasn't any proof of a second daughter.

Neuro followed a little behind her, playing the part of the good assistant.

"Excuse me," Yako peered into the room, trying to make out who was a server and who was an owner, "I was wondering if I could talk to the owners?"

A tiny woman with an almost birdlike build stepped over to them.

"Oh! Miss Detective! My husband and I were wondering when you'd come." Neuro stepped in before Yako could even open her mouth, spearing a pointy-clawed hand onto her skull.

"Ah, yes! We do apologize- we set out so early, but we were waylaid by the storm that's rising." Yako gritted her teeth. That had been exactly what she was going to say- how, exactly, could she have messed something so simple up?

"Oh, Miss Detective, thank you so much for coming to talk to us. It's such an honor! We have prepared a meal for you, so please sample our food and tell us what you think." Mr. Abe came over, motioning to a private room sending out delicious smells. Yako realized, with a start, that he, too, was tiny. Neither of the parents before her were taller than her by more than an inch or two; it explained Yurika's tiny stature, even for a thirteen-year-old, even for a corpse.

Neuro allowed the parents to steer them into the private room, and, at a nod from Mr. Abe, pulled the thick wooden door shut.

As soon as the parents heard the door click shut they dropped all pretense of joy.

"Please, Miss Detective, please," Yako nodded, ready to reassure them that Ami was innocent, that she was certain she'd be able to find the real culprit, but, "Ami had to have done it! She was always jealous of her younger sister! We're horrified that she took it this far, oh!" Mrs. Abe began wailing in earnest. Neuro sent Yako an intrigued look and settled in the chair next to her, casting a suspicious eye over the plates of food laid out before them.

Mr. Abe, mopping delicately at his brow for no apparent reason, nodded. "She was never a bad girl before, but something changed in her. She... well, you know, it's expensive to train a star. Yurika was our light and our joy, and so we of course wanted to give her the best." Yako nodded slightly, not quite sure she liked where this was going.

"And her coach, Mr. Karoliyv, why! What a stupendous man! You certainly get what you pay for. He was always so devoted to Yurika, so wonderfully instructive and building." Yako blinked slowly. Their language was so formal, almost... careful. Indeed, she could see Neuro looking intensely at the two of them, teeth not too far from being bared in a hungry grin. Perhaps this mystery was shaping up for him after all.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Abe, but I was wondering..."

"Please, eat!" The man insisted, ignoring his miserably wailing wife. Yako stared at him. This scene was... surreal. "Well, we're in a bit of financial trouble now, especially since our sweetheart Yurika is, she's, well," Mrs. Abe let out a fresh wail and doubled over in her seat, "but we're hoping that we'll be able to come up with the funds by the end of the month, especially if you, Miss Detective, were to perhaps enjoy our food and say-"

"Mr. Abe!" Yako interrupted, shooting to her feet. Anger seared through her. This small man in front of her had aroused such a intensity of feeling within her that, for a moment, she felt the urge to dash the food from the table. She repressed that urge and directed it into the force of her words.

"Your younger daughter is dead! Your elder is accused of killing her, but we have a strong suspicion that she is _innocent!_" She spat the word out. She didn't think she'd felt this angry since Neuro's casual demeanor following the HAL case. "You act as if you don't have a second daughter! You're ready to throw her to the wolves! Act like parents! Give your first daughter the same level of support you gave to your younger, at least when she needs it!"

The Abes recoiled from Yako, clearly astonished at her tirade.

"Now, now," Neuro soothed, waving his hands in a placating manner, "I'm sure that they have an excellent reason for such an opinion of their daughters. After all, what kind of parents would they be if they simply favored one over the other because she attracted more attention?" Yako looked sharply at Neuro. He slid his gaze over her, clearly a warning to calm down, to stop. The Abes didn't miss his barb, though, and Yako felt her anger ebb a little at the shame that crept into their thin faces.

Finally Mrs. Abe spoke, her voice soft with tears and embarrassment. "... We haven't been very good parents. It's true," she raised her voice at Mr. Abe's sudden protest, "that we have neglected Ami. But it's because of that neglect that we are actually quite worried about this. Yurika was the sun in our house, Ami the moon. Perhaps this was wrong, yes, but that is how it was and now we cannot change it."

Yako sat down again at Mrs. Abe's hand motion, slowly. Neuro nodded almost imperceptibly at her. She returned the motion stiffly. "Let's finish this interview as quickly as possible, please." Mr. Abe, hunched miserably in the corner, sighed. Mrs. Abe shot him a cold look before turning back to Yako and nodding tensely.

"What do you need to know?" Yako thought for a moment. If the Abes were angry enough at her (and Mr. Abe certainly seemed that way, sulking and stirring a dish that would have looked delicious under better circumstances), they might tell falsities. Her outburst might have cost them vital information, something that Neuro would make her pay dearly for. However, he had given her no signs of displeasure, and in fact had only played further upon what she had instigated. On the other hand, they might have cut through the smog of hazy family secrets and gotten straight to the matter at hand: Ami had been neglected enough to breed deep resentment.

Yako decided to find out the blunt way. "How has Ami had to sacrifice to make room for her sister?" Mrs. Abe bit her lip gently, a girlish move that highlighted her resemblance to her dead daughter.

"Ami was very gifted academically. She was accepted to the best school in the city, maybe even the whole prefecture. We couldn't afford that school, though, and also pay for Mr. Karoliyv's lessons. We could have compromised and switched Yurika to a less expensive instructor, but we opted not to. Ami went to the local high school, one of the worst schools in the city." Yako looked Mrs. Abe in the eye.

"I see." Mrs. Abe gave Yako a watery smile.

"I see too, now. But at the time, it seemed like an obvious choice: Yurika already had talent and prestige. We didn't want to risk that, especially with her chance at becoming the national champion at the next tournament."

Neuro leaned forwards. "Did Ami have a history of violence? Fights?"

"No, no. She was always a quiet, bookish girl until recently. I think it must have made it easier for us to do what we did. She and her sister were both very alike in that way. They never made a fuss, not even about themselves." Mr. Abe spoke up, his tone surly.

"Ami recently started martial arts lessons, though. Her teacher's brother was giving them to her free, so there was no reason to object." Neuro raised what looked like an interested eyebrow. Yako knew better, though- that brow was the sign of a potential clue.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. and Mrs. Abe. We'll work hard to prove your daughter innocent so she may return to her proper place inside your home." Neuro dragged Yako up and out of the room. As she turned to shut the door behind her, she paused.

The Abes were shouting at each other.

* * *

"You almost made things very difficult," Neuro groused, watching the snowstorm outside the office. The train ride back had been silent, Yako thinking, Neuro watching the sky.

"I don't care!" Yako snapped back, aware that she was pushing his patience, truly not caring, "Those people treated their elder daughter like a neglected pet! I meant everything I said, Neuro, and I don't think they lied to us after that anyways." He fixed her with a steady stare, which she returned boldly.

"No," Neuro said slowly, as if tasting the word, "they didn't lie to us, not after you spoke to them."

"Eh? After? You mean they were lying before?" Neuro rolled his eyes and grabbed Yako's shoulder, dangling her a full armspan above the floor.

"Not lying, perhaps, but purposefully feeding us half-truths. When _this_ storm is over," he cast a hateful look at the blizzard that had yet again brewed up, sending snow to cling to the thin windows of their office, "I want to go talk to this Karoliyv man." Yako, busy wailing her distress, only sort of heard him.

When he finally flung her over onto the couch, she regained her feet quickly and staggered over to her desk. Godai had texted her on the train, saying that he was leaving to be with his girlfriend again and that the information they had asked for was on her desk.

Neuro noticed the placement of the file and gave her a toothy, blank-eyed grin, feet on the table.

"Slave Number Two needs to learn who his master is, wood louse." Yako blinked at him.

"But, Neuro, would human injuries mean much to you? What seems severe to us is small for you." His grin faded for a moment before returning full-force.

"If that's the case, Slave Number One, perhaps I should study that sort of thing through you." Yako shuddered at his suddenly revealed claws. No, that wasn't exactly what she'd hoped his response would be. He didn't seem too interested in going through with the threat, though, because all he did was walk over and read the file over her shoulder.

Yurika had countless stress fractures, an abnormally high amount even for somebody with brittle bones. She had a broken bone, torn muscles, a screw holding a muscle and a bone together, and damaged spinal disks. Even though she was used to serious injuries, Yako felt sick looking at the list. Even worse, under all of the injuries was Godai's handwriting: 'old'.

There were eighteen pages total detailing Yurika's medical issues, their causes, and the treatments, or non-treatments. Neuro took the file and spread it out on his desk, using his extra eyeballs to survey them all at once.

"Yes," he finally announced, "we will be going to see her coach once this lets up. But Yako," He fixed her with a dangerous stare, "for this man, there will be no outbursts. He will not take your power the same way the Abes did." Yako frowned at him.

"Don't be silly, Neuro. It's not a power. And I won't. I... _am_ sorry about that. We're lucky it turned out well." He shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

"It did turn out well."

Silence fell in the office. Yako decided to check her e-mail. Neuro, meanwhile, got up and paced, looking out the window sourly from time to time. Finally he descended on his computer, typing madly in a way that made her sorry for the keyboard.

"We're supposed to have four more days of this," he finally announced, looking, if not grave, at least slightly off-center. Yako looked up from writing Akane an e-mail. It was something they'd taken to, trading stories and thoughts, simply because it was difficult for them to talk openly with people outside the office. For Yako it was the matter of Neuro; for Akane, it was the fact that she was dead.

"Why?" Yako asked. "I mean, why did you look it up?" The absurd idea that it had something to do with the case made Yako wonder if she was missing something.

"I don't like it," Neuro lazed out, teeth becoming visible as he flashed them to the window outside. "Hell is a warm sort of place, perfect for roasting humans in." Yako gritted her teeth. "So what do humans do while waiting for things?"

"Eh? We... well, we sleep, or cook, or surf the web, or..." She shrugged. "It's up to whoever's doing the waiting."

"Aha! I see! So I could pass the time by seeing how far around your head will turn, yes?" He had that stupid-looking blank expression on his face again. Yako shrieked and shook her hands in front of her.

"No, Neuro, no! I'm happy having my head where it is!" He approached her with either a grin or bared teeth- she couldn't tell which.

"Tell me something," he grabbed her head in his normal skull-crushing way, "tell me." She gave him a questioning look. "...Nn." He released her and walked over to the couches, pausing to take his jacket off before lying down. After a moment of hesitation, Yako followed him.

He looked terribly young and terribly human, lying there. When his eyes were closed and his teeth hidden, he looked like the sort of man that girls just loved to swoon over in the magazines. Hiding a sudden burst of- of _something_, something hidden and quiet and grasping in her, Yako lay down on the opposite couch. When she looked over at Neuro next he was watching her.

"What do you think you're doing, wood louse?" His voice was soft. Yako wondered if he was tired. His current position recalled several dangerous situations, but right now he wasn't hurt or near-fatally drained, just... resting, apparently?

"Lying down?" She replied. "I don't want to keep you up with typing." It was only partially true, but she wasn't about to mention that she was staring at him. That seemed a blatant invitation to trouble that she was _not_ ready for.

He shrugged non-commitally and rolled over, giving her a view of his back. She looked at it dispassionately, feeling a little bored but unwilling to move.

After a second her rolled over again and returned her look. Yako, feeling emboldened by his gaze, began to try and see if there was anything in his face that she had never noticed before. She always read in romance novels about little things, like noble scars or firm jaws or twinkling eyes, that the heroine discovered by staring at her love. After a few minutes of trying that with Neuro, however, Yako had to concede that she knew his face with an intimacy that could only belong to a detective. Maybe it was because she wasn't a heroine in a romance novel and Neuro wasn't, mostly, her love. (A sour voice inside her grumbled that she was, if anything, in a horror novel.)

In an instant that changed, however, because Neuro's head was suddenly his demon form's. It surprised her for an instant, but she had become so used to his little tricks and his eating of mysteries that it didn't take too much to become familiar with that face, too. A sweeping, rounded yet sharp beak with jagged teeth inside. Purple and yellow, and green, poisonous eyes. Ringed, flowing horns. A funny ruff that might have been hair and might have been feathers. Yep, Yako thought with a funny sort of mental huff as Neuro returned his head to its human form, she knew that too.

Oddly enough, though, he didn't look upset that his 'trick' hadn't frightened her.


	3. The

As always, I don't own these people. I like the janitor, though.

* * *

I think Today will come much more swiftly following this chapter. I'm very excited about where it's headed, as I've kind of been building the whole thing even since Quietly and Softly. I promise, this thing will end with one heck of a bang!

That said, man. I was busy today! I wrote this whole thing, every word, AND wrote up that other thing. ;; There must be something in the air. Maybe it was the haircut. Anyways, this chapter was kind of boring for me. I like it best when Neuro and Yako are interacting, and between Yako's little chat and Neuro's sudden neurosis, they didn't get a lot of time together. Booo.

* * *

The storm let up relatively quickly, so they didn't even have to wait for the next day to go talk to the coach. Neuro seemed pleased, kicking the snow with a vengeance that Yako didn't really understand (it came every year and it left every year, it was no big deal).

After they had escaped from the front office attendant, who had wanted to charge them both despite Neuro's intense stare and Yako's pleading insistence that they weren't here to skate, they managed to find their way to the main rink. Even better, the coach, Karoliyv, was standing in the rink with one of his students.

She was cute, Yako decided. Tiny, small, thin, and elegant somehow too, the girl was pretty much the ideal kind of ice skater. It would be such a treat to see the girl skating- Yako loved to watch the skaters during the Olympics, after all.

"Nn, Neuro," she paused in her walking. He kept on going but turned to face her, tossing her a questioning look. "I want to see her skate a little, okay? Please?" He turned to the rink. For a long second he looked out over it, then he shrugged and seated himself on one of the benches in the stands. Hiding a chirp of delight, Yako stepped over and sat down next to him. (A part of her noticed that he had left her room next to him and wasn't sure what to make of that.)

They sat in silence for a moment, Neuro watching blankly, Yako taking note of the way the girl leaned towards her instructor. The man himself, however, leaned back with firmly crossed arms. It wasn't the warm, guiding man the Abes had painted him as, that was for sure.

After a still second, the girl took off across the ice, gliding with a grace that even Sai would have been pressed hard to match. She spun, flew, and dashed so lightly Yako was half-waiting for her to simply lift off, flying into the air like a bird. But during one of the axle jumps (Yako at least knew what an axle looked like, if not how to do it or what made a fantastic one) the girl stumbled, landing clumsily and falling to the ice with a pained, frustrated cry. The coach was on her in an instant, barking out criticisms and corrections, lamenting the whole time.

"Aha," Neuro stood, looking satisfied, "so it _is_ a combat sport! You lied to me, wood louse!" He booted her down the stairs, sending her onto the ice with just the right speed and path for her to zoom to a stop at Karoliyv's feet just as he was finishing with a loud, startling,

"-and if you think you cannot handle that_ palty injury, you fat cow, _a little _wrist broken, what! _You will be _nothing! Do nothing! _You will be _another failure, _and _all_ you will have left for yourself is that, just that_: failure!_" Yako looked up at him, jaw agape, then at the pretty, frail little girl staring straight ahead. If she had been the subject of that tirade, she would have been in tears, or angrily protesting, or, or, or anything, but...!

Yako clamped her jaw shut, fighting against herself with such violence that she started to tremble in anger. She could hear Neuro walking up slowly behind her on the ice, was certain that he could see up her skirt if he tried, could feel the skater's eyes sliding over to her and the coach's, too-

all she wanted to do was rip into the man the way she had the Abes, to tell him how wrong he was, but she knew that it would do nothing. It would be a waste of effort. In fact, it might even make things more difficult for the people he subjected himself to on a daily basis: if challenged, he might become more extreme in his abuse. Yako knew this, knew it in the core of her being, could feel her face flushing with anger and her heart smarting with the injustice of it all. But she held her tongue, and stood up, and nodded politely. Neuro clamped a hand down on her shoulder, but there was no edge of pain to it. It was almost as if he was... afraid, of what she might do if he gripped her too tightly.

She heard Neuro introduce them through a haze of numb, hot anger. She bowed politely to Karoliyv when the time came, and shook hands with the little girl (and she was, Yako realized, a little girl: she couldn't have been more that eleven) before she skated away. Yako excused herself neatly too, spurred on by Neuro's somewhat strained explanation that she usually did other investigations, leaving her assistant to gather more mundane information.

* * *

The skater was standing in the hallway when Yako emerged from the chill of the rink. Yako stopped in the hall and looked over at her.

"...Hey," the girl called, walking up to her. She laid a hand on Yako's arm gently. "Don't worry about it. He just wants me to know what I'm up against, so I won't get psyched out by the competition. He just gets a little intense sometimes. My parents are the same way." Yako looked down at the little girl's hand. It looked tiny on her arm, almost frail... and it was, apparently, broken.

"...You know that you're not a failure, right?" She didn't know why the words came out; it was far too personal of a question to ask anybody but an intimate friend. The janitor mopping the floor paused in his actions, probably at the audacity of her question. But Yako didn't care: that impotent anger was still flooding her.

The skater just shrugged, tossing her an enigmatic smile and turning to go into the private locker room for skaters. "But I am, if I don't make it."

Yako stared at the door to the rink, feeling as if the shadows in the hall were going to eat her alive. She had expected the behind-the-scenes of the figure skating world to be... beautiful and cool, as composed and airy as the skaters themselves. But the world she had found instead was filled with such all-surpassing cruelty and neglect that she couldn't even begin to understand it. How could somebody go into training with somebody that abusive, every day, all day, and then brush it off as nothing?

She started to cry before she could stop herself, thinking of the victim, lying in a casket, and her sister, lying in a cell. Had Yurika once been that indifferent girl, rail-thin, a child, with broken bones and a cruel coach? She would have liked to say no, to convince herself that this miserable world was just a confusing nightmare, but the list of injuries Godai had pulled up said otherwise.

"Oh, miss, come on now... Don't cry, miss, you'll give yourself wrinkles!" She came back to herself with a start. The janitor! She had totally forgotten about him!

"Oh, oh," she wiped her eyes as best she could with her hand, "I'm s-so sorry, sir, please forgive me for..." She choked down a wail, but before she could turn away the old man was rummaging in his pocket. His hand emerged clutching a packet of cute, cat-decorated tissues.

"Nothing for you to be sorry about, miss. Wipe your eyes, it will help. My granddaughter gave these tissues to me, so I hope a nice little girl like you will like them. They're too puffy for an old man like me," he said, winking and smiling a little. Yako took the offered tissues and wiped her tears, sniffling miserably now and then. "Now let's sit down and talk, all right, miss?" She nodded and let him lead her to a row of seats along the far wall.

"What's got you so upset, miss? Are you a new skater? You seem a little old for that coach's tastes." Yako shook her head and toyed with the tissue. It was really adorable. His granddaughter had good taste.

"I'm a detective," she finally croaked out, "and looking into the Abe sisters' case. I just met with..." She looked over at the double doors into the rink. The janitor looked too, his eyes wrinkling a little in thought. "He was so cruel to that little girl! She's so tiny and talented and all he did was _hurt_ her!"

The old man sighed deeply and nodded, resting his hands on his knees. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts, so Yako waited. She wiped away some more tears that had leaked out, trying not to think too hard about what it must have been like to skate like_ that_ with a broken wrist.

"Everybody," he started, "doesn't understand something. Lord knows I don't understand an awful lot, heck, that's why I'm working here instead of out there." Yako looked up at him in confusion. "But," he caught her eye and handed her another tissue, taking her wrinkled, sopping one and tossing it into a trash can with an expertly executed toss, "that man out there, he doesn't understand little girls. He thinks they're... well, like grown-ups. Now I've had seven little girls between my kids and my grandkids, miss, and I can tell you right now, little girls are little girls."

Yako nodded softly, dabbing at her eyes. The worst thing in the world for her right now would have been for Neuro to come walking through the doors, she realized. She knew it and could only hope that he would stay away until she was calmer. The last thing she wanted to do was end up slapping him again. (It had hurt her, later, to think about his surprised look when she had reached out and hit him. Sure, he dangled her over ledges and squeezed her skull and tossed her down stairs all the time, but she never actually got hurt from any of it.)

"But he doesn't mean any harm by that, miss. He just doesn't understand. Little girls are little girls. Big girls are big girls, too," he smiled at her and she gave him a small, shaky smile in return, "and sisters are sisters. Now Miss Yurika and Miss Ami had a lot of tension between 'em, and personally I don't think what their parents did was right, but they loved each other. Miss Ami'd come and read while Miss Yurika would practice. I asked her why, once, because to be honest it gets pretty dull watching those cute little girls spin around after you've seen it a thousand times." Yako laughed softly, still dabbling tears from her eyes.

"You know what she said, miss?" Yako shook her head.

"No. We haven't met with Miss Ami yet." The janitor shook his head.

"Don't even need to do that to know, miss. She said, 'I don't want my sister to be alone if she needs something'." The janitor leaned back and shook his head, smiling faintly. "She acted mighty tough, that Miss Ami, and she could floor a man in ten seconds flat. But she loved her sister just the same as any other girl. And Miss Yurika, why, she loved Miss Ami too. She never asked anybody to be with her when she went to matches but Miss Ami." Yako blinked. They had... really stuck together, that much?

"What I'm trying to say, miss, is that people aren't always good and they aren't always bad, but they're always people." She nodded at him, feeling as if his words were telling her far more than she could really grasp but wanting, desperately, to hear more. "When Miss Yurika died, I was in there that day, just changing the trash bags. Miss Ami was there, same as always, watching her sister and reading, and that pretty little girl was spinning around just like Mister Karol wanted. Those two were as happy together in that rink as anybody with lives like theirs could be."

Yako took a breath and was glad, so glad, when her voice didn't tremble. "Sir, uh," the janitor chuckled and muttered something about polite young girls, "did Miss Ami... Miss Yurika had a lot of injuries when they... looked at her. A lot." She suddenly made the connection between the skater she'd just seen and Yurika and gasped. But how could anybody-!

"Yep," the janitor sighed, "all those little girls are hurt pretty bad. They're working too hard, or something. I don't understand it, but as long as they keep on bringing in money'n medals, those ice skating people, they just turn away." Yako looked down at the floor, thinking.

If Yurika and Ami actually did get along, and well, and the injuries on her body were actually stress-sourced, and she had a lot of them, and she was self-medicating with aspirin–!

Yako gasped and stood up. The janitor smiled and stood as well, wiping his hand off before offering it to her respectfully. "Miss, I hope that helped you a little. It was nice to meet the kind of person that you seem to be. I think you'll do a lot of good in this world, miss, if you don't mind me saying so." Yako blushed and shook her head, reaching out to shake his hand enthusiastically.

"No, no, thank you, sir! Thank you so much! You've been so kind, and helpful... I really don't know how to thank you." He smiled gently at her and picked up his mop again.

"I just know little girls and big girls, miss, and not much else. Seven of them in the family, and I'm a happy man because of it."

* * *

When she next found Neuro, he was staring discontentedly at the snow falling, thickly, from the sky. Again. At this point, even Yako had to admit that all this snow was getting excessive.

"Neuro, did you find anything interesting?" He'd tasted a mystery here, and while what she had figured out wasn't his cup of tea (and she didn't even know if he could eat a dead girl's mystery), she knew something more would pop up.

"No," he scowled up at the sky, watching that weird frog-with-the-mohawk tool he'd heaved out at Gigi's. It was being carried around by what looked like a snake with eyeballs covering its body. Beautiful.

"I figured out that Miss Yurika accidentally killed herself," Yako told Neuro, not expecting much of a reaction. Indeed, he simply cast an idly glowing eye over her, standing with his arms folded.

"What a lovely thought. Perhaps now the real mystery will unfold." He sounded... terse. Was he mad at her for leaving him with the coach? If he was, Yako decided, tough luck. He'd been the one to warn her not to get angry, and he was going to have to deal with it.

"Neuro, don't you even care? We can go get Miss Ami out of jail. I'm sure the coroner will agree with us once she's finished her work." Neuro turned to her abruptly, clutching at her shoulder urgently. His eyes were fixed on hers, his grip rigid with insistence.

"When did this storm first come to the city?" Yako frowned at him. Man, he was getting weirder and weirder about the weather. It was bizarre for him to be so focused on something so trivial. He seemed almost... worried.

"I don't know, I guess... the last day we were at Gigi's? The night with the macaroons." His expression darkened so much as she finished that she almost wished she hadn't answered. "Neuro, why? What's wrong? Is it an _evil_ storm?" She covered her mouth once she'd said it, but as the words came out she couldn't help but feel a niggle of suspicion: the storm _was_ an odd one, and meteorologists everywhere around the area had been talking about how bizarre it was that the storms just kept coming. But... Hell was hot, right? And besides, it was due to end any day now. This couldn't be a storm from hell, literally or otherwise.

"...Good job, wood louse. You solved the mystery. Now find me the second part, or I'll give you this!" She frowned at his abrupt changing of the subject. However, once he shoved what looked like a large tick with tentacles and pink spots under her nose, she forgot all about it in favor of screaming and leaping back.

"What _is_ that?"

"A parasite from Hell," Neuro grinned vacantly. Yako shrank away. Eww, a parasite?! "It affixes itself to the inside of your throat and eats all your food before you can. Eventually it gets too big and you start to choke around it!" Yako gaped, then clamped her mouth shut with a squeal. That was beyond creepy- that was downright disgusting!

"Ew, Neuro! No, put it away! I'll find you your mystery, I promise!" Dear father in heaven, she thought, if I arrive to meet you because of this demon, let us haunt him together in Hell for the rest of his life.

* * *


	4. Storm

* * *

Disclaimer: The standard "I don't own anybody" thing. You know.

* * *

Dear, dear, dear readers. Please don't brick me for delaying this for so long, or for what you got at the end. We have come to the "thrilling" conclusion of Today, and I'm happy to say that there's something after this as well. Thank you all so much for your kind words and your delightful thoughts and reflections- they make my day, to read what you all think and wonder. To be honest, your watches and favorites and so on were what pressed me to finish this. That said, if you're shy or lazy, please don't feel pressured at all to make a response. Knowing that people read this is really enough for me.

Well, I've been building up to the inferred conclusion that a certain character makes for a while now, and hopefully this conclusion is painfully obvious to the reader. If it isn't, don't worry, don't fret, in the next bit I have going now it will be stated explicitly and the mystery will be solved.

Yes, this is all part of one single mystery. Ah... uh... enjoy summer vacation, if you happen to be on it, and I really do hope that you all enjoy this!

* * *

Running down the street, breath coming in sharp staccato pants, fogging like marshmallow puffs of urgency in front of her, Yako pushed all thought from her head. She had to get there in time. She had to find Neuro, and Samish. Samish and then Neuro, more like. The blizzard was howling, and the wind was so intense she kept on slipping and falling, but she had- to- keep- going-

* * *

When Ami was released from jail, the coroner's report supporting Yako's findings, Yako thought that perhaps the mystery would turn out to be something like, "why Ami didn't reveal her sister's accidental overdose". Maybe, "Ami's secret stalker"? "Ami and Karoliyv's secret love triangle", even. Not:

"...officials have stated that the eyewitnesses are very reliable, and that their statements prove the murderess guilty quite conclusively. For those of you just tuning in, the Nationals coach Menkinov Karoliyv was found murdered last night in the soon-to-be-held Nationals' skating rink. Eyewitnesses state that Ami Abe, sister of the late figure skater Yurika Abe, walked into the gym in an extremely disheveled state. She was apparently deranged, muttering something about the storm outside, and shot Karoliyv three times in the chest before ending her own life. Police have called in multiple gang contacts, trying to understand how such a young woman came into possession of a firearm..."

Yako and Godai stared at the television blankly until Neuro leaned down and put in a video cassette. It had been with the rest of their mail, and while Godai was convinced that it contained porn, and 'sexy lady' porn at that, Neuro had smelled the aroma of a mystery on the tape and so kept it.

The screen was black, and then it flickered and there was Ami Abe, smiling honey-warm into the camera. Yako felt herself tear up and blinked hard. She wanted to see this, wanted to understand, desperately.

"Hello. If you're watching this, I, Ami Abe, older daughter of a sad, middle-aged couple with a single dead daughter, have completed my task. I went into the storm last night and felt the voice of my sister calling to me. But I knew that I couldn't come to her empty-handed." Yako choked back a sob and shook her head. Godai tossed her the box of tissues, his eyes glued to the screen. Neuro was leaning forwards over his desk like a hunting dog to a duck, his expression schooled into neutrality. Yako couldn't tell if he was upset, or if he was pleased and trying not to get slapped again. Either way, she was grateful. She couldn't handle Neuro's moods right now.

"So I planned to bring her a gift in the form of her true murderer: her coach. He drove my little sister," Ami breathed in, her serene expression blurring into grief, the kind that consumes and leaves blankness behind, "he drove her to incredible heights. But she fell, and nobody caught her, and she died. I should have been there for her. I failed her. But her coach failed her as well. We failures can go to heaven to beg for Yurika's forgiveness together." The camera swung around to reveal the ice rink. Yako stifled a cry: Karoliyv was behind her on the ice, dead. Three people were huddling behind the plexiglass of the rink boundary. Yako frowned. Something... was very strange here. But what?

Godai had noticed, too, but he seemed to have solved the mystery and was obviously somewhat alarmed by it. "Now he is gone, and it is my turn to pass through this illuminatory storm and go on to heaven at my sister's feet. Please forgive me, please forgive me, Miss Yako. I know you worked very hard to free me. The storm sends you its love instead of mine. Please forgive me." Godai lunged forwards and pulled Yako to him, covering her face in his stomach and wrapping his arms around her ears, just as a bang went off and the people behind the plexiglass began to scream.

"Turn it fucking off," Godai hissed, covering Yako's ears more tightly as his body went rigid.

"I need to see something," Neuro insisted, his voice hard, impatient. The storm outside was stirring itself into a relentless howl, probably the worst it had ever been. It almost sounded like an animal screaming its death call.

"_No_," Godai growled with enough force that his stomach tensed, "turn it off _now_. She's got _enough_ of this kind of thing to deal with already." Yako heard a few more seconds of sobbing little skater girls in silly outfits and tights before Neuro listened to Godai.

Godai let her go gently, smoothing her bangs down in a rare fit of tenderness. "Turn on the news or something. Jesus..." Yako smiled at him blearily, wiping her eyes. She'd seen the same tissues the old man at the rink had gotten from his granddaughter on sale. Unable to resist a bargain, she'd picked them up, and that was what she dabbed her eyes with now, even as the news came on. Neuro drew back and stalked around to stand behind Yako and Godai.

"...police repeat that nobody is to leave their homes, not even for the most basic of items..." Godai raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"Tch, come on. People are so weak about storms here." Yako bit at her lip, dabbed at her eyes.

"...Is this a mystery?" Neuro shook his head. He seemed on-edge. He seemed... uncertain. Scared, or as close to it as Neuro could come. It cast a terrifying feeling over the office, as if some kind of horrific monster was going to burst in on them. Yako turned her gaze back to the television, trying to distract herself from what... what she had just heard.

"Nobody was holding the recorder," Godai breathed, running a hand over his face, then through his hair. "And how the hell did we get the tape? The witnesses didn't say shit about a tape. I'm sure those little kids..." he trailed off, expression turning tragic for a second, before he went on, "sure they would have said something 'bout a tape being made."

"So one of the slaves was paying attention," Neuro snapped, his teeth clicking on every word. Yako frowned at the news. She was still too shocked to follow what the announcer was saying, but it seemed... odd. Like everything else today. There was something wrong.

"They said she was mumbling. She was probably making the tape." Yako couldn't think of a single way the video tape could have been _made_, though. Godai was clearly having the same problem, because he started muttering about pinprick cameras and flying bats and all those crazy sorts of things you ran into in anime and manga. The bats tickled something in Yako, though, and after a nearly mind-breaking moment her gaze flew to Neuro. Tools. _Demon_ tools.

He met her eyes with a grim clench of his jaw that showed more teeth than looked comfortable. Yako covered her mouth, too appalled, too scared, to say what she was thinking. _Another_...?!

Just then what the news announcer was saying started to filter through.

* * *

People were killing themselves like it was a new sport. At first it had seemed like the work of some bizarre cult, but after enough police had rushed to apartments of residents who had their windows opened when the storm kicked up, people began to figure things out. (Regardless of what Neuro said, people actually _did_ think, Yako mused.) The police and firefighters were suited up for a chemical attack, ready in white moonsuits. But normal people, grandmas and grampies and sisters and little dogs named Pon-chan... well, there were no moonsuits for them.

Neuro knocked Godai out with a single punch. Yako screeched, more so when Neuro just walked over his body to sit on the couch, grinding his heels on Godai's spine.

"Neuro! Is this... I thought demons weren't allowed to bring attention to themselves like this?!" He tilted his head to the side and stared out the windows, mercifully closed, at the storm.

"This one is skirting a very fine line. If he hadn't hooked himself into that Videotape Girl just now, he could probably get away with it down in Hell." Yako shuddered.

"What are we going to do? Will it... er, he, just- just go away on his own?" She didn't like that idea at all, but she didn't want to become homicidal or suicidal. Neuro apparently did.

"We're going out to stop this whole thing. It's a mess, absolutely disorganized and obvious to even the casual wood louse." He shut his eyes in thought. "But... it might be difficult for me." Yako thought he was kidding at first, but when his eyes stayed shut and Akane stilled, looking somewhat drained, she realized that he was _absolutely serious_. To Yako, there was nothing stronger than Neuro, and here he was, gathering up as much of his energy as he could get to attack a giant winter storm with anger issues.

"Why, Neuro?" She sat down on the couch opposite him, brows knitting. "I mean.. Won't Hell send somebody better-equipped, if you're... why will it be difficult?"

He lunged forwards and had his claws on her before she can scream.

"I am a demon that survives on organisms. There are types of demons that survive not on organisms, like you and I do, though, but on collections of things such as rain, or _misery_." He hissed the last word, his claws digging into her shoulders enough to cut the fabric there. "I solve mysteries and consume them. This demon incites a mass of feeling to his will and then consumes its source. In short, stupid slave number one, while perhaps Hell will send somebody eventually, the mechanisms to do so are too slow. What we need is what you humans call a ground response." Yako wasn't sure what to say the that, so she put a hand on his, still clawing into her shoulder. He stood, shaking her off, and motioned to the door. She could feel a little blood seeping through the fabric of her blouse, but his sudden clandestine, serious nature dissuaded her from saying anything about it.

"What? I- Uh, Neuro..."

"Hurry up, wood louse," Neuro purred, already halfway down the hallway. The lights were flickering in time with the wind of the storm, which could be felt through the floor. Yako felt as if she was inside a reed, or a strip of cloth.

"Neuro, wait...!" Yako exclaimed, chasing after him in a hurry. "Neuro, if humans are getting sick from this demon, why are you bringing meeEEEEE!!"

* * *

It was _cold_ outside, she reflected. Very, _very cold _out. Neuro was ahead of her, standing still. Ice was rapidly forming on the sidewalks, heaps and heaps of matted-down hail forming a slick surface. Yako had to pick up her booted feet to shake the forming ice off, moving her arms and legs to keep from being coated and enveloped. Neuro was circling, motion the only familiar thing about him, looking up and down and all around, his horns out, his claws bared, his teeth at the ready. He was fully demon-shaped, something she might have taken more note of if she wasn't so petrified.

"I am happy to see one such as yourself," a tenor voice screamed out, the words ringing around and around the air like a trapped bird. Yako gasped- somebody had appeared from the blizzard, somebody with a long white scarf and flowing ash-blonde hair down to his feet, somebody with teeth too big for his grin, just like Neuro. But his teeth were icicles and his nails sheeted ice, his hair snowbound and his clothes infested with wind. Where Neuro was... frightening, alien, but ultimately _there_, this stranger with eyes on Neuro like a cat on cream was like something from another galaxy- too frightening, too alien, too far away. Yako found herself drawing away and back as if by instinct.

The tussle was shockingly brief, simply this snow-storm demon introducing himself as, "Samish, at your service, oh famous detective" and then backhanding Neuro into the side of their building so hard the wall collapsed and Neuro lay in the lobbey, unmoving, covered in building dust and being consumed by snow. Samish stepped forwards, nodding cheerily at Yako, before picking up the stunned demon and sliding him onto his shoulder.

"Wh- Leave Neuro alone!" She gasped, running towards them. Samish gave a chirrup of surprise and smiled at her. Yako slid to a stop in front of him, panting, frightened out of her mind but determined to rescue Neuro like he always did for her. Even if she was just a human, even if she was scared witless, she was conscious and Neuro wasn't and that- well, some days that seemed to be all that mattered.

"What are you doing?!" She screamed at him over the winds.

"I am his number one fan," He screamed back, smiling exactly like Neuro. Yako shook her head hard, hard, as hard as she could while still fighting the incredible wind. Her eyes stayed fixated on Neuro, being dangled over somebody's shoulder like a bunch of fabric.

"You can't do that! Neuro is- what are _doing_?!" Samish fixed his white-blue gaze on her and stepped close, close enough that Neuro's feet, coated in ice now, dangled near Yako's shoulders. She looked up at him, angry, her mouth forming into a strict, serious line. "You have hurt _so many people_ and you can't just _take_ Neuro-!"

Neuro stirred then, a faint tremor followed by a full-body motion resemblant of a whip cracking or a cobra striking. But Samish caught him and laughed, teasing Neuro with his hand and hitting him again when Neuro snapped at him. The blow made Neuro's eyes cross, which made Yako start to tremble: Neuro was strong. He was much, much stronger than her, and he could take a bullet or twenty to the eye and come right back to full function in a fairly tiny amount of time. Yako was... human, and small, and weak.

She gritted her teeth and stomped her foot, locking eyes with Samish. Compared to his victim, Samish was nothing in terms of sheer intimidation; his eyes didn't glow or swirl, and his teeth didn't look as if they were being shown for your singular benefit. Yako felt a draining of fear at that- no matter what, she was going to rescue Neuro, moaning and bleeding and still as he was right now. It was her turn, her turn to help him as vitally as he had helped her, and she was going to help all the people that Samish had hurt and was hurting right now–

"Stop hurting Neuro," Yako said, quietly. Samish backed up as if she'd brandished a hot poker at him. Faster, probably, since he was a demon from Hell and all. "Let him go." She took a bold step towards him, tossing a surprised, questioning look at her feet when she didn't feel the resistance of that terrible creeping ice. "Leave my city. Leave us alone."

"I came a long way to get him for our use," Samish choked out. "I'm not giving up just because some- some-...?"

Yako looked up from her feet, surrounded by greenery and tiny blossoms, puzzled. Was Neuro doing something? If he was, he certainly wasn't being subtle about it. Samish didn't seem to be too pleased about whatever it was, though, because the storm picked up with a violence Yako hadn't known a storm could have.

"Tricky bastard, you tricky, tricky bastard," the storm demon was humming nervously, looking at the ground. Yako watched the plants; they were nothing special, just some grass and some dandelions and some vines, but they were _so green_. In the midst of all this whitewashed cityscape, that taste of green was beautiful beyond words. They were poking through the snow and melting it, too. Yako drew some more courage from looking at those innocuous human-world plants before advancing (it must have been some kind of last-ditch effort by Neuro)

and the plants did too. She turned her head- Samish leaning around her to look at well- and realized that the plants were following her steps. _What_.

"He knew it! He knew all about it, of course! Ohhh, truly the best..." Samish folded himself and Neuro into the billowing white of the storm, leaving Yako to dash after, screaming Neuro's name as if his life depended on it.

Maybe it did.

* * *

So now Yako was running, following the liquid splash of blood that was coming from Neuro. She had to find him on time, had to, had to- because while she didn't think that Neuro was in any way a damsel in distress, well... There were violent scratches and clawings in the roads, dotted with hissing demon blood, that Yako ran across from time to time. He was fighting, but oh, oh. He was losing, and losing blood too.

The plants followed her in a green little strip, marking where she'd been and which way she'd come and once, when the ice brought down a power line, they held fast to her shoes and wouldn't let her pass until they'd wrapped themselves around the line. They burnt, but they protected her, and Yako felt her heart quicken with a small bit of love for the greenery.

The world was narrowing into one white strip of blankness, a long line of events blending into one, spots of Neuro's blood marking time like periods after a sentence, and Yako, out of breath, still running, her body screaming in pain and weariness, was so so stumblingly tired, so weak, ready to fall and rest and let the ice creep over her, just for a moment, just for a time,

she staggered forwards and felt the sun on her face.

* * *

When she'd taken a rest, she sat up, ruffling the soft little grasses under her. There was a beautiful tower of ice in front of her, sparkling in the sun but unmelting.

"Samish," Yako said, her shoulders dropping and her mouth tightening. She had come to the heart of the storm, and she was going to rescue Neuro or die trying. He'd said it himself: Hell was slow. Nobody would be coming to help them before it was too late. (Even if somebody did get sent in time, Yako had the lurking suspicion that they'd be just as bad as Neuro had been when he first came to the human world and twice as poor at hiding it.)

While Yako would have loved dearly to simply cuddle down somewhere hidden and dark and sleep away this nightmare, something nagged at her... it was her turn to be the knight in shining armor, really, and she wasn't going to balk from her duty.

One boot in front of the other, one step at a time, followed diligently by tiny plants rustling like fussing maids-in-waiting, Yako strode up to the hazy blue doors and pushed them opened.

"_Neuro!!_"

* * *


End file.
